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Widow's Revenge
Widow's Revenge was a heavyweight robot which fought in Series 5 of Robot Wars. It was built by the "Robot Widows", a team of female roboteers who claimed to be 'tired of having their partners spend so much time working on their robots', and was also directly supportive of the Breast Cancer Campaign charity. Widow's Revenge reached the second round of its Heat, before being destroyed by Razer and Matilda. On the show, the Widow's Revenge team were introduced as the wives and girlfriends of Team Razer, but this is not entirely true. Of the original team members, Team Captain Gillie Blood was the fianceé of Ian Lewis, and the sister of Vinnie Blood. Fiona Smith was not linked to Team Razer, nor was original team member Jenny Smith, but Emily Cathcart, the girlfriend of Vinnie Blood, joined the team when Jenny Smith fell ill. Gillie Blood, nowadays Gillian Lewis, was part of Team Razer in Series 8 of Robot Wars. Design Widow's Revenge was a box-wedge shaped robot with a white and pink colour-scheme in homage to Breast Cancer Campaign, a charity supported by the team. It was also decorated with glossy lips, and the robot's name. Widow's Revenge was armed with two weapons: a vertical spinning disc at the front, and a rear-mounted spinning drum, in reference to a rolling pin. Its sides were sloped outwards, and the robot was four-wheel driven. The robot's appearance and weaponry resulted in the team describing it team as "a fridge on wheels with a rolling pin weapon". The drum was the more effective weapon, but the robot's armour and chassis were fragile, and it had no self-righting mechanism. Robot History Series 5 In its first battle, Widow's Revenge fought veteran robot Sumpthing. It was slow in leaving its starting position, only turning on the spot, sustaining several attacks from Sumpthing's discs, although Widow's Revenge was able to deflect the discs using its own drum. After an extended period of both robots lightly attacking each other in the centre of the arena, the spinning discs of both robots collided, throwing sparks. Widow's Revenge held Sumpthing near the pit release button, where one of Sumpthing's gears fell loose, limiting its mobility. As time started to expire, Sir Killalot grabbed Widow's Revenge with his claw and dropped it onto Sumpthing, where 'cease' was called, and the battle was sent to a Judges' decision. Based on the damage sustained by Sumpthing, the Judges unanimously ruled that Widow's Revenge had won the battle, to the celebration of the Robot Widows, as they jumped around the control booth. Directly after the Robot Widows had pledged to defeat their other halves in Team Razer, Widow's Revenge was drawn against Razer in the second round of the heat. Prior to the battle, the team jokingly left Team Razer with an ultimatum, to persuade them to lose the battle. They also stood behind the team, parading signs reading "Bulb Boy" (referencing Vinnie Blood's bald head), "Weasel" (referencing Simon Scott's slim figure) and "Potato Features" (referencing (Ian Lewis' face). The clash between boyfriends and girlfriends started in the arena, and Widow's Revenge now sported small pieces of Diotoir fur on its back end. However, Widow's Revenge was unable to position its weapon in a way that it could hit Razer, and the hydraulic crusher forced its way down, causing a strip of metal to fly off, while the top armour of Widow's Revenge was crumpled. Widow's Revenge was forced from the floor as it was pierced, and another attack from Razer caused more strips of metal to fly away, and Widow's Revenge's other top panel was crushed. Widow's Revenge had already been immobilised, so Razer pressed the pit release button and then inflicted more damage, placing Widow's Revenge over the flame pit. As Widow's Revenge was pushed towards the floor flipper, the Robot Widows held their disparaging banners up in their control booth. Refbot counted out Widow's Revenge there, before Razer drove in to cause even more damage after the team's partners had already lost. Razer crumpled Widow's Revenge off the floor again, and then the House Robots closed in, with Matilda using her flywheel to throw the beaten robot up, removing its top armour completely. Sgt. Bash placed Widow's Revenge back onto the floor flipper, where it was tossed directly upwards, and dropped a piece of metal under the flipper, wedging it open. Both Razer and Sgt. Bash used their crushers to attack what remained of Widow's Revenge and hold it in place for Matilda to tear up its front wedge. The combined attack of Matilda and Razer continued, causing further damage, and Razer drove Widow's Revenge towards the pit. In an act of late glory for the Robot Widows, when Razer attempted to push Widow's Revenge into the pit, Razer fell down itself, hanging from the chassis of Widow's Revenge by its claw. Regardless, Widow's Revenge had already lost the battle, and fell at this stage to the team's own partners. Gillie Blood said after the battle that she would have lots of time to repair Widow's Revenge, claiming never to make hot dinners for Team Razer again, and that she would put Ian Lewis' bed in the shed, while Emily Cathcart told Craig Charles that 'the war will continue on a domestic level'. Results |} Wins/Losses *Wins: 1 *Losses: 1 Series Record RobotWidows.jpg|The Robot Widows at the Series 5 qualifiers RobotWidowsWigs.jpg|The Robot Widows with their wigs widowsrevenge team in pits.jpg|The Robot Widows in the pits Outside Robot Wars After Robot Wars entered its hiatus from television, untelevised team member Jenny Smith built a featherweight called Pillow Torque, a four-wheel driven pushing robot with a front wedge. She is part of the all-female Team Torque (no relation to the team behind All Torque), who built Dantomkia mk5. Her team also built the featherweight lifter Pain in the Asp, which resembles the American robot 'Sewer Snake' and competed in live events until its retirement in October 2017. Aside from entering Series 8 of Robot Wars, Gillian Blood Lewis also competed in the 2015 series of BattleBots, alongside other members of Team Razer, to compete with Warhead. Trivia *The Robot Widows were the first all-female team to compete on Robot Wars, not counting the one-woman team of WYSIWYG. *Widow's Revenge was the only robot in Heat K of the Fifth Wars that never appeared in any other series. Category:UK Series competitors Category:Robots with Drums Category:Robots with Cutting Discs Category:Robots from East Sussex Category:Robots with an equal amount of Wins and Losses Category:Robots which debuted in Series 5 Category:Robots which only fought in Series 5 Category:Robots with cameo appearances in Series 6 Category:Robots with cameo appearances in Dutch Robot Wars: Series 2 Category:Robots with cameo appearances in German Robot Wars